Macpaint.org: Historical Gallery and Archive

Laurence GARTEL: Gartel was one of the first artists to work on a personal computer and taught Andy Warhol how to use an Amiga. His work has been shown at the MOMA and far too many galleries to list here. He writes that early on, "I took all the stones and the arrows in the back from many curators, museum directors, critics etc who said, 'Digital Art has no substance.' " www.gartelautomotion.com
Adelaide ©1985	Lip Service ©1986	Mythology ©1986

Catacomb for a Princess ©1986	Thirst ©1988
Bert Monroy: Bert was so impressed when he got a Mac in 1984 that he soon started a company to publish clipart called HumanForms, allowing less-skilled artists to quickly assemble professional-looking drawings of people. He was the 7th or 8th person to use Photoshop and co-wrote the first book on it. As one of the first illustrators using Macpaint, he did a lot of work for Mac magazines and produced backgrounds for the first comic drawn on a computer, Shatter. He has been featured heavily in graphic design publications and at Photoshop conventions. Click here for macpaint.org's full collection from Bert Monroy www.bertmonroy.com
A Door Somewhere ©1986	Reflection ©1986	Fossils ©1987
Into It ©1987	Objects Out There ©1986	The New World ©1986
Susan Kare: The Japanese Lady... it is hard to know where to start with this one. It is certainly the most famous Macpaint image, so it seemed somehow unnecessary to remind our visitors of it, but the collection would hardly be complete without it. This was the image used to sell Macpaint, and the Mac. Susan Kare drew it from a woodcut belonging to Steve Jobs, and it found its way into most of the early Mac advertising. If ever there was a picture that was worth 1000 words, it was this one. In 1984, the fact that this could be made on a Macintosh told you everything you really needed to know about it. This image is owned by Apple but is presented under fair use due to its obvious historical and educational value. Thanks to Theodore La Barba for digging up this complete version of the image. www.kare.com
©1984 Apple
Matt Kinnamont: Matt can tell his story better than anyone else: "I worked as a security guard at the Fremont Mac factory on the swing shift since the time Apple took possession of the brand new building in mid-1983. I watched them transform the bare concrete edifice into a habitable and working factory. As part of the job, I was able to freely roam about the trailers initially behind the building and watch the Mac take form, and later, as the state-of-the-art factory came together (perhaps it was too state-of-the-art, in the estimation of some), I witnessed the Mac's mass production. As an art student, I jumped at the opportunity to experiment with MacPaint, and spent a considerable amount of time watching the front desk after-hours in order to play on the Mac there. When the upstairs folk saw some of my handiwork, they recruited my talents for some in-house publications (memos, coversheets and such). I understand that my tiger drawing--"Matt's Cat"--was put up on the large monitor in the lobby to greet folks on their tour of the facility. I remember seeing Steve Jobs and the man that eventually fired him, John Sculley, at the factory on the day they launched the Macintosh. One of my most interesting memories was that of seeing the father of the Mac logic board, Burrell Smith, sprawled out on the carpet with a huge print of the board, going over it with the real item as a reference during the run-up to release."
MATTS CAT ©1984	MARILYN ©1984	RON ©1984
BROTHUH GEORGE ©1984	Macaroni ©1984	Untitled cover sheet ©1984
Brian Thomas: With Philip A. Mohr, Jr. he created If Monks Had Macs, a Hypercard stack that helped users study Imitatio Christi. Neither had much drawing skill, but they were nontheless able to pull off this remarkable stack by carefully manipulating clipart. Macpaint allowed non-artists to produce impressive visual works. The original Monks is available online, but there is also a newer version available. www.rivertext.com
©1987	©1987	©1987
Pamela Hobbs: Currently a digital matte painter for feature films, she has worked at Jim Henson's animation studio and ILM. This image was published in The Gray Book. www.pamelahobbs.com
©1989
Martin Melin: History and current activities unknown. Please contact if you have any information. This fine example of Macpaint drawing has circulated on the internet and is archived here under presumed fair use. It shows one of the Voyager spacecraft, which are currently 16 and 13 lighthours from Earth. At the time of this drawing, they were much closer, though not quite as close as the image suggests.
©Martin Melin
Hank Hinton: A Los Angeles-based illustrator, Hank Hinton offers many images from his extensive portfolio for free on his website: www.hankhinton.com
©Hank Hinton	©Hank Hinton	©Hank Hinton
©Hank Hinton	©Hank Hinton	©Hank Hinton
David Chambers: This Vancouver, BC illustrator began using Macpaint in 1984 when his brother purchased several Macs for his office. Dave continued drawing in 1985 when his aunt got a Mac 512k. He has worked as a Canadian Mountie and sheriff, but his career turned back to art and design, including 2D and 3D animation and video games. Click here for macpaint.org's full collection from David Chambers theconceptartist.com
©1985	©1985	©1985
©1985	©1984	©1984
Chris Evans: These drawings were done when Chris Evans was 10 or 11 years old. Macpaint was of course not only a tool for illustrators and fine artists, it was great fun for kids. After getting his start with Macpaint, Evans eventually made a career out of computer graphics. He worked for several years at Crytek, makers of Crysis, and is now at ILM. www.ChrisEvans3D.com
©1990	©1990	©1990
David Pohl: This was the album cover of a cassette David Pohl's band Vastlesssmudge released in 1985. He is now an illustrator working on magazine and book design, as well as animation for web and TV. www.davidpohl.com
©1985
Stefan Beck: Stefan Beck is currently heading up The Thing Frankfurt, an organization working to expand art outside of galleries and formal contexts in Frankfurt, Germany. He sees the internet as a powerful new force for the communication of art. www.thing-frankfurt.de
system1 ©1989	system2 ©1989	system3 ©1989
system4 ©1989	system5 ©1989	system6 ©1989
David Newman - DNSF: David Newman started his art career at UC Davis in 1973. He worked as a courtroom artist until getting involved with computers in the 1980s. He created the first training curriculum for Via Video and the first websites for the De Young Museum and the San Francisco Legion of Honor. He now paints portraits with an iPad. www.dnsf.com
Dance Processing ©1984	TamSteam ©1988
Mike Yates: Mike Yates is a web and print designer in Chicago. The image shown here is the view out of a former office window, now with paper airplanes animated on top of it. The cityscape was drawn on a Mac Classic, after MacPaint had really made its splash but before Photoshop became dominant. www.mikeyates.com
View From Wacker Drive ©Mike Yates
Albert Calleros: This Southern California animator describes himself thusly: "I am an artist just looking to keep it simple, not be a jerk, and do great work." He drew this woman in Macpaint and left the computer to take a break. When he returned, he found that a friend had drawn the extremely tasteful floating man and the "Alberta" graffiti. http://beanrobot.wix.com/albertcalleros#!home/mainPage
Alberta ©1991
David Suggitt: David drew these in 1989, as a high school student. He recently noticed that his "vision of the future" now resembles the modern-day Shanghai skyline. He is now an IT consultant serving small businesses in Canada and abroad via the internet. www.davidsuggitt.com
Vision of the Future ©1989	Monolith on Plain ©1989	Mount Rundle, Banff ©1989
James Leftwich: Now a user-interaction designer in California, Leftwich relays this information on these drawings: "The M-Aura bitmap was created in 1987 on my 128k Macintosh, using MacPaint. It was mostly done by hand, but I generated the source of the wave image at the bottom using some early match application. But I remember that every pixel and line was cleaned up by hand, as there were a lot of irregular jaggies, etc... I created it for the October 1987 cover of M-Aura, the monthly newsletter of North Texas Mensa (Dallas, where I was living at the time). I'd gone to the School Of Design at the Kansas City Art Institute, where Los Angeles graphic designer April Greiman was one of the alumni. I was inspired in part by her digital piece, which had been printed in the industrial design magazine, I.D." Click here for macpaint.org's full collection from James Leftwich www.orbitnet.com
Time 'n Space - Cover of M-Aura 10/1987 ©1987	Eyes ©1985	Aerlivve ©1985
Hoover Factory ©1985	DeStijl Marlboro Man ©1985	The Kiss ©1985
Images © their respective creators, as noted. Used with permission Site content © 2011-2017 Joel Cretan